“Italy is part of Utah’s history, and Utah is part of Italian history.” –Phil Notarriani, PhD, born 1948 in Salt Lake City
As Anglo-Americans in the West began to use railroads to excavate coal and metals on an industrial scale in the late 1800s, Europeans migrated to the United States in search of mining jobs. This website attempts to depict the Italian immigrant experience by using oral histories of Italian-Americans connected to mining in Utah. This project pays special attention to the ways in which Italians in mining communities, even as they assimilated into the dominant culture, maintained cultural ties to Italy that have spanned generations.
These oral histories indicate that material culture played a vital role in the preservation of an Italian identity. While the importance of preserving such markers of culture as religion and native dialects varied to different individuals, there is an enthusiasm for culinary and musical traditions that is common throughout. Making their own food, wine, and clothing helped immigrants to cope with difficult circumstances as well as to retain a link to their home country. As Italian immigrants assimilated culturally and as miners organized in labor unions with other ethnicities, the Italian-American community became part of the larger community while still retaining a distinct identity.
Immigrant workers in Carbon County. Marriott Library, Peoples of Utah Collection.
A background history of Italian immigrants, mining, and labor in Utah
Italians and other Europeans began immigrating en masse to Utah in the 1880s with the advent of industrial mining. A railroad that allowed for easy access to the high-quality coal in Castle Valley was completed in 1892, attracting investment and providing even more mining jobs. The coal could be used to smelt silver and copper mined in other parts of the state, causing high demand for its extraction. Mine owners sought out European immigrants as a source of cheap labor, and many people were willing to emigrate from Italy due to agricultural depressions and for the hope of upward mobility.
In 1894, Carbon County split off from Emery County due in part to its distinct population of non-Mormon immigrants, taking its name from the coal that supplied its core industry. Helper, a railroad hub in Carbon County, became known for its ethnic diversity. By 1908, there were one thousand Italians in Carbon County, more than any other Utah county. Immigrant miners played a crucial role in the labor movement in Utah. Charles Demolli in the 1900s and Frank Bonacci in the 1920s and 1930s were Italian labor leaders, and Bonacci went on to become the first Italian-American representative in Utah’s state congress.
